THE Western NSW Mariners FC State League Women’s outfit will look to convert frustration into motivation this Sunday in order to topple competition leaders APIA Leichhardt Tigers.
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Last Sunday the Mariners went down 4-3 to University of New South Wales and while showing grit to twice fight back to level terms, overall the performance was far from Western’s best.
In fact coach Jason Payne felt it was the Mariners’ worst performance of 2017 thus far.
“To fight back from two goals down to level it going into half-time, they dug deep, but for me and for the girls too, we were a little bit frustrated,” he said.
“They two goals they scored were off mistakes and we felt, talking to a few of them after the game, it was the worst we had played all season.”
Fatigue was a factor in that performance, but Payne knows a similar effort against an undefeated APIA outfit which has scored 20 goals in the past fortnight will not be acceptable.
He is hoping the frustration his players felt will motivate them to produce the sort of football that has them in third after the first full round of the competition.
“They found it rather frustrating, but it’s motivating coming into this weekend against APIA. If we put in a performance like we did on Sunday we’ll get punished, so hopefully that serves as motivation for them to get up for this game and try to get the three points away from home,” the coach said.
“I think we’ve had a fairly decent opening round, which to a certain extent it’s a little bit surprising. But then reading reports on the other teams, I think we’re all in the same sort of situation where we didn’t have a good pre-season.
“To be at this stage in the season and running third, it is a pleasing thing and hopefully we can continue and consolidate our position up the top of the table.”
In the first round against APIA at Proctor Park, the Mariners held last season’s grand finalist to a 2-all draw. It was a solid performance, but Payne is expecting a more formidable line-up this Sunday.
“APIA are a decent side all over the pitch really and I don’t think they were actually at full strength when we played them at Bathurst in the first round, I think they were missing a few players,” he said.
“I’m going to assume that this time around, being on their home turf, they are going to be a lot stronger. But having said that, their results haven’t been much different to ours, so I’ll take something away from that.
“If we can play to our potential and play our game, then I think we could be in with a good chance.”
Kick-off between APIA and the Mariners at Lambert Park is at 5pm Sunday.
